Cameroon teachers freed after Wum kidnapping

Five teachers kidnapped from a teacher training centre in Wum, in Cameroon's English-speaking west, have been released, state-owned media and a local education NGO said Thursday.

The teachers were seized Tuesday in an attack on the centre that also killed a police officer, local authorities said earlier.

The Cameroon Tribune newspaper reported that the five were freed Wednesday in an “operation” in the village of Isu and escorted by special forces back to Wum.

Nigel Mbaya, an official with a local education NGO, told AFP that each of the five hostages had paid a ransom worth about $3,500. He said the army had not played a role in securing their release and that no separatist group had claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Regional governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique said earlier that armed individuals entered the centre in Wum, about 80 kilometres north of Bamenda, on Tuesday morning. He said a police officer at the scene tried to intervene before the attackers shot him dead and took the five teachers to an unknown location.

Cameroon's two English-speaking western regions have been gripped by conflict between government forces and separatist groups for nearly a decade.